Connecting means for rails



I E H D H E v D E G 4 3/ Z G in. v G s11 J1 Q H F r N\\ 3 A fig A A D D D |F A Filed Nov. 13, 1937 Nov. 22, 1938.

i E //////////Z F Patented Nov. 22, 1938 I ("UNITED-STATES PATENT OFFICE";

CONNECTING MEANS FOR/RAILS AngeloLodetti, Milan, ltaly, assignor of seventy percent to Bruno Negrini and Angelo Sbarberi,

Bologna, ltaly Application November 13, 1937, Serial No. 174,439 In Italy December 1, 1936 4 Claims. J (01. 238-221) a This inventionhas for its object some improve- According to the invention all inconveniences ments in the connecting means for'railway and of the previous systems are overcome by cutting tramway rails and aims to provide means for in known manner the outside edges of a part of overcoming the jolting which takes place bythe the rail-head not as far as the inner rail edges 5 rolling of the wheels on the point of connection and the bottom end of the said rail-head and by 5 of two rail sections. 1 joining these modified rail sections by means of As is known many systems have beenproposed fish-plates or splices, which are fastened by in -order to overcome this inconvenience which means of usual bolts passed through the outside grows more and more serious by'the increase of fish-holes. The resulting pocket formed in corspeed and ofthe weight of the rolling stock. respondence of the contiguous ends of two rail 10- .Furthermore, the rolling stock suffers very sections is filled, according to the invention, by much from the jolting in correspondence with means of abridge-like member having a flange the joints, and especially the-electric locomotives adapted to bear against the outer fish-plate, the in which the motors are'fitted; exclusively or in said bridge-member being fastened to the fishl5 part, on the axles, without interposition of plates and rails by means of the two middle springs. a i s fish-bolts. Thus all the fish-bolts are practically In order to eliminate this inconvenience it has not subjected to any additional stress, but, even been proposed to cut at an angle otherthan if the middle fish-bolts should resist the vibraright the rail ends in such a manneras to protion and some additional stress imparted thereto Vide that the gap between the abutting rail seeby the bridge-like member and their nuts should 03.

tions is inclined with regard to the rail axis'Q become loosened, due to the fact that the out- By this system, however, there are sharp edges side fish-bolts are never subjected but to the at the inside of the rails, which are easily -deusual stress and hold tight, the rail sections do formable and when deformed can abut against not become disconnected even when the correthe Wheel flanges andcause the train to derail. sponding. bridge-member should become slack- 25..

According to other systems it has been proened. posed to out the ends of the rails in Wedge 'form According to the invention, furthermore, and to fill the resulting pockets by means of two means are provided in order to keep the bridgewedge-like inserts forming part of special fishlike member against the rail and to avoid the 3.01;; plates or splices to be substituted for the usual transmission of any substantial addition-a1 stress'30 fish-plates. on the fish-bolts.

According to the known systems these carrier The invention will be better understood by the fish-plates may be fitted on one or both sides following descriptionmade by reference to the of the rails. Anyway they must be such as to attached drawing in which:

withstand a double stress, viz: the stress to which Figure 1 is a side view of a joint fitted to the the usual fish-plates are subjected and the stress rails modified according to the invention;

resulting from the passage of the train on the Figure 2 is a plan view;

bridging portion or tongue at level with the rail Figures 3, 4 and 5 show in section on line surfaces. Therefore the modified fish-plates or III-III, IV--IV.and V-V of Figure 1 respectiveiousplices, besides being of a'somewhat complicated ly three embodiments of the joint according to 40 construction, must be worked with such a prethe invention;

oision as to have the largest bearing area against Figure 6 is a side view of a modified outer fishthe base flanges of the rails and this in order plate or splice;

to minimize the stress transmitted by the splice Figure '7 is a section on line VII-VII of Fig- 4digato the fish-bolts. Thus these systems become ure 6;

very expensive due to the precision required in Figures 8 and 9 are a side view and a perspecthe construction and fitting of these modified tive viewof two forms of bridge members; I

splices and notwithstanding all the bolts of these Figure 10 shows a form of fish-bolt adapted for splices or fish plates are subject to .a double use in connecting together and to the rails the 50,;stress and their nuts are subject to become fish-plates and bridge member; and

loosened, due to heavy Vibration of the splices. Figures 11 and 12 are respectively an outer side Now, if some of these splices become loosened, view and a plan of the two rail ends modified so the corresponding rail sections are no more firmly as to permit of using the wedge-like bridge memconnected together and aderailment of the train ber according to the invention.

ss ensues. a a With reference to the drawing, the outer edges-'55,

of the ends of the rail-head A are cut away in known manner at anangle to the rail axis, but not so far as the inner edges and for a certain thickness of the head, for instance to 7 of the thickness of this part, as shown at B and B, Figs. 11 and 12 and in Figs. 3 to 5, in such a manner as to provide that a substantially prismatic triangular pocket is formed'in correspondence of the joint when the ends of two rail'sections are brought together, this pocket having its wider end directed towards the exterior of the rails.

The rail sections thus modified-are connected together by means of fish-plates DD' of usual design, whereby at first only'the outer'fish bolts E'-E are fitted throughflsh-holes'F'F;

The substantially prismatic triangular pocket constituted by the two adjoining pa-rtsBand Bf is filled by a wedge-like bridge-memberrG in one piece with a flange H made in such a manner as to bear against the outer fish-plate D, when the wedge-like part G is fittedin place. This flange H has twoapertures K-K-, Figures 8 and 9, which are positioned like the middle openings FF, Fig. 6, of the outside fish-plate D. The member GH is fastened in positionvby meansof fish-bolts E-passed through-holes K and the aligned fish-holes F (Fig. 6) and-C (Fig. 11).

In order to overcome any tendency of the bridge-member G to slip outwardly or toexert an additional stress'on the fish-bolts E, means are provided inorder to draw the part G towards theinside of the railehead A; or also to drawthe part H against the outer fish-plate D, or both.

To this purpose many arrangements are possible,v but the following are proven the best ones:

In the arrangement according to Figure 3, the bottom of the pocket formed between the adjacent ends of the heads of two railsections is substantially horizontal, but the outer fish-plateD whas intermediate of its ends a flattened part L slightly inclined inwardly with regard to the vertical.

The flangeH of the bridge member G is correspondingly bent so as to provide that its inside face forms a slightly acute angle with the bottom face of G. This may be effected either by a.

corresponding bending of H or by making this part H of increased thickness from the part issuing from tqngue G towards the lower part, as better shown in Figure-9. Due to the co-action of the inclined inside face of this part H against the inclined plane L of the outer fishplate D, whenthe nuts of bolts E are tightened the part H is drawn. downwardly and towards. the rails and the wedge-like tongue G is caused to tightly bearagainst the bottomv of the pocket in which it is inserted.

In the arrangement shown in Figure 4 the depthof the pocket formed at the ends of the rail-head increases from'the outside towards the inside of the rail and the wedge-like tongue Gis of. correspondingly increased thickness from its wider end towards the apex, as shown in Figure 9. In-this case the flange H may be of constant thickness and bent at such an angle as to bear against the corresponding side of a usual fishplate D, i. e. a fish-plate without any specially flattened part.

It is apparent that, due to the shape of the bridging tongue G and of the corresponding Figures 3 and 4'is shown in Figure 5, in which th'e pocket in the rail-head is of increased depth towards its apex, the bridging tongue G is of correspondingly increased thickness and its flange H is also of increased thickness towards its lower end and bears against an inclined surface formed intermediate of the ends of the outer fish-plate D, as in the case described with reference to Figures 3, 6 and 7. It is apparent that this latter arrangement combines the advantages of the arrangements shown in Figures 3 and 4.

In order to avoid of any torsional or radial stress beingtransmitted from flange H to fishbolts E, a certain play is necessary between the stem-of fish-bolts E and the corresponding fishholes K' of flange H'. To this purpose these holes K are made 'either circular, but of larger diameter'thanthose of-the stem M of the fish-bolts, as shown by dotted lines in Figure 8, or also oval, as shown by full lines in the same figure, or also rectangular, as shown in Figure 9. When rectangular holes are preferred, in-order: to check any tendency of the part GH to be displaced angularly, under'the head of the Il'liddl'ifiSh-bOltS' E a square part N is provided.

It is apparent. that the invention canunderli'e some modifications especially as 'regardsthe shape of the bridgeandit will be understoodthat-although the prismatic triangular form is considered as the best form, the bridge may also be of trapezoidal shape, of heart-shaped form," or. with otherwisejcurved .walls and suitablyshaped,

provided the upper edges do not remain at right angles to the rail axis.

Furthermore, inorder to avoidany tendency of the bridge-member G--H slippingtowards the exterior, the bottom of the pockets and/or the" of rail sections, thewebs of which are-provided with holes while. portions of the outside edges of the heads are cut'away at an angle to'therail.-

axis up to a certain distance from the inner edge andfrom the'bottom part of the 'headsso as to form a substantially prismatic triangular pocket on the tread surface at the meeting edges of the abutting rail sections, fish plates arranged on' opposite sides of the web portions and contacting the adjacent faces of the head and base portions of the rail sections, abridge member including a tongue-like portion and an integral.

flange portion, said portions being ,angularly disposed at slightly less than 90relative to each" other, the tongue-like portion fillingthe'pocket" while the flange-portion is disposed against the outer face of the-adjacent fish plate, the web portions of the railsections, thefish' plates and flanged portion of the bridge member being :pro'- vided with aligningapertures, and nutand'bolt' arrangements engaged in the aligning apertures" forfastening the parts together wherebysdue to the angular disposition of the tongue-like portion and the flange portion of the bridge member the adjacent parts of the joint will be-jammed' into engagement with each I other;

2. A rail joint as claimed in claim 1, in which" theouter surface of the fishplate which coacts' with the flange portion of the bridge member is provided with-a vertically inclined surface.

3. A' rail joint as claimed in'claim 1, in whichv 4. A rail joint as claimed in claim 1, in which portion and the flange portion of the bridge memthe bottom of the pocket is inclined downwardly her are tapered slightly from their outer edges from the outer edge to the inner end thereof and to their point of juncture for respectively coastin which the outer surface of the fish plate ad-v ing with the inclined surface of the pocket and 5 jacent the flange portion of the bridge member the inclined' surface of the fish plate.

is inclined downwardly while the tongue-like ANGELO LODETTI. 

